Tuesday, February 16, 2010

The Technician.

Okay, I've gone and done it now - I've emailed The Technician to Macmillan. There is a point I often reach when checking through and editing where I wonder if I'm beginning to make changes simply because I'm bored with reading it for the nth time. I know that there will be mistakes in the book that I've missed, but finding them becomes an increasingly difficult chore as I read the words that are in my head, rather than the ones on the screen.

Time to sit back now, take a breath, and start looking at the the next one.

Incidentally, more questions for the next video clip please, but no more: "When are we going to see so and so again?" or "What's next?" I've already covered that The Technician comes out next August, The Departure comes out the year after and meanwhile I'll be writing the series of books that come after the latter.

Great stuff, looking forward to it already. On another note, I can't believe you actually answered my question on the video clip. I should have shown a bit more positivity and asked something constructive but I really was feeling crap. Anyway, your response to it cheered me up enough even though I am now thankfully better.

I am asking this, knowing that the answer probably is yes. Dont you have editors and other people at Macmillian that read through your book a few times and check for mistakes?

Like you said, if you read the same words 20 times then you probably stopped noticing the mistakes a while back. Better to let fresh eyes read it, like friends or colleagues or if you have the choice do like you always do, let the eyes rest for a while and then come back to the book.

Question for next video clip: You seem to spend a lot of time in Crete. Is this because you're now a bestselling, fabulously wealthy writer and can afford 2 homes, or that you just like to get away, and being a writer...you can work from anywhere. (And you like Crete)

Gabbleducks (are they horrible or hilarious?) have this extra set of brains going down their back (right?). do they have some kind of submind slave community system beholden to a main mind? if you could wax on this subject for 10 minutes, that would be swell.

----------oof screen--------p.s.: i haven't stopped thinking about this since The Gabble read. might be easier to be insane than to let every lobe perception (reason for so many different eyes?) have it's say.

What do you think of your cover art, specifically the different styles for your UK releases? Not limiting yourself to the UK covers, which is your favourite? You may not want to answer this one, but which do you dislike the most?

Since proofreading is obviously drudge work for you and it takes so long to get the book published, you could just email all the impatient people here on the board the draft and we would be happy to read it for you